Rules of Love
by queenbibliophile
Summary: Comfort each other. Make each other laugh. Accept that you will always be different. Compromise. Be there for each other. Love each other.
**A/N: This one's for StoriesfortheMature** **. She'd suggested doing a Harry/Ginny thing with one of them getting a pet for their kid, but I couldn't flesh that out as much as I wanted to. Maybe I'll try it again, but this spawned from that prompt.**

 **You should really check out her story and her branch-off, _Let There Be No More Curse_ and _The Curse of_ _Anne Marie Green_ respectively. They're fantastic stories :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 _Comfort each other._

"Ginny, please come to bed." He pleaded, standing at the door of the guest room. His girlfriend, clad in boy shorts and a tank top, was curled up in the fetal position, facing away from him. Tears stung her eyes at his words.

"Baby, please." He begged her padding forward silently and touching her bare shoulder. She shrieked, retreating further into a ball at his touch and further from him. He ran a hand through his hair, hurt. But he knew he deserved it.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry." He pleaded, smoothing a hand down her arm. She recoiled, but could go no farther. The bed she was laying on was too narrow. "I'm so, so sorry."

I can't even bear to be around you right now." She spat, hating herself for letting her voice crack. "I could kill you right now."

"Sweetheart, it's been four hours since we got back. Please, honey. You know I didn't mean it. You know I wanted to kill Goyle for it." He stressed, hesitantly closing his large hand over her shoulder. When she only cringed, and did nothing more, he assumed he was making headway."

"Just get away from me, Potter." She bit out. "Don't touch me. You've lost the right to hold me ever again. Get lost."

It stung. It really stung. Before he knew it, tears were rolling off the end of his nose. He squeezed his eyes shut to stop them, and opened them again, trying to release shaky words.

"Are you breaking up with me?" He questioned, trembling hands rubbing at his eyes.

She was silent. He could feel his heart begin to split into two, and then she opened her mouth. "No."

His heart swelled. She wasn't breaking up with him. Thank god thank god thank god thank god.

"I still want to kill them." He murmured quietly to her. "I want to immerse them in a vat of hot oil and skin them raw. I want to butcher their dicks off in front of them, cook it and force them to eat their own dicks. I want to force them to jump off a cliff and fall to their deaths. I want them to be forgotten."

He looked down, at Ginny's quivering figure. "I'm sorry, Ginny." Harry managed to get out before silent tears began to drip down his face again and splash onto her body. Her neck, her shoulder, her cheek.

She was still angry, but not at him. Gritting her teeth, she counted to ten in English, then in German, then in Dutch, then in Spanish and lastly in French. Pushing herself off of the mattress and twisting around to face her hunched-over boyfriend, it in that moment she truly became a woman and left all that was innocent about her behind.

He was sobbing into his hands, sitting cross-legged at the edge of the bed and crying. Something inside her twisted and she moved towards him, enclosing what she could of his broad shoulders in her arms. He shuffled further towards her lest he fall off the bed and gently brought Ginny around to face him. She sat in his lap and wound her arms around his torso, her head against his chest. He sat with his back to the tall headboard, and held her tightly, dragging her impossibly close to him. His tars wet the top of her silky head but she didn't care.

She began to cry too. "I feel dirty." She whispered remorsefully, the tears soaking through the front of his own tank top. She traced the ridges in his arms as he held her.

"You shouldn't." He vowed. "Goddammit, you shouldn't. Goyle should be ashamed of himself. I'm proud of you for doing it. Thank you."

"I've done a lot of things for your team over the last three years, Harry." She told him quietly, her tears still sliding down her cheeks. She watched one splash onto his forearm.

"I know." He answered, equally as softly. "I handed in your resignation today."

She wasn't in a position to demand answers. "Thank Merlin. Thank you, Harry. I don't think I can do that ever again."

"I don't want you to. I'll castrate anyone who suggests it." He replied fiercely.

The Aurors had been trying to infiltrate a Death Eater hideout after the war, and Ginny was part of their team. She was the only female there and when all tactics had failed, they had discussed sending in a female distraction, on the basis that no man could resist the call of his dick.

Harry had suggested it.

Ginny went in disguised and undercover the next time they'd called a brothel. Had gotten into the hideout. Left tracks for them to follow her in. Run into Goyle, one of the Death Eaters there. Smiled coyly at him, asking to be taken to the boss. Had been taken aback to see Theodore Nott leading them. Had tried to seduce him. Had been made to dance in front of all the men in a skimpy costume to gain their attention while the boys secured the location. Had been kissed crudely by some drunk idiot after her 'performance'. Had almost been raped by Theo Nott in front of everyone when Harry and the others had burst into the room.

Later she found out that she'd drawn everyone into that one single room. They'd managed to take down all the Death Eaters left in England thanks to her. But she didn't feel any pride in the fact.

If anything, she felt violated.

She spent the night in Harry's arms, crying softly with him over what had transpired that day as he assured her repeatedly of her resignation and spent the night telling her she was beautiful, and that she would never have to do anything of the sort again.

* * *

 _Make each other laugh._

"Please?" She asked, her eyes twinkling playfully. "It is my birthday." She giggled. He huffed, turning away to hide a grin. If he didn't, the entire thing would fall apart.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease, Harry?" She pleaded, dancing around to meet his face. "Please please please please?"

Mock-sighing as if this was a huge struggle, he let his crossed arms fall to his side. "Fine." He drawled, as she squealed and placed a crown of daisies on his unruly hair. She had the same one on.

 _She looked beautiful today_ , he mused. She was wearing a white summer dress with the swishy bottom hem reaching just about her thighs. Her long red hair was loose, as usual, and she was barefoot, wearing the aforementioned crown of white daisies in her hair.

"Come _on_ , Harry! It's a beautiful day!"

"It's your birthday, sweetheart." He chuckled, amused at her lightheartedness. She danced forward, grabbing his hand and leading him out into the small garden. He followed her, and hand hooked in the belt of his jeans.

"Dance with me!" She giggled, her feet barely seeming to touch the grass at all. Immediately, he backed away.

"No." He blurted. She pouted.

"Please?"

"No."

"You're a great dancer."

"Ginny, I stepped on your toes twelve times in twenty seconds the last time we danced together. I was practically dancing on you!"

She laughed. "Good thing my mum and dad didn't see it then! They would've been mortified to know that they'd just given away their only daughter to a half-blood who couldn't dance!"

He screwed up his nose. "The last time we danced was at our wedding?"

She nodded. "Three years ago."

"Good Merlin." He enunciated, in shock. "I haven't danced with you in three years?"

"Nope!" She sing-songed. She turned to look at him and widened her eyes, coming across as more of a cartoon character than someone doing the puppy eyes. He rolled his eyes and let his wife lead him out to their small garden, where the two of them grew whatever they liked, even though Harry stubbornly insisted on lining the fence with honeysuckles and lilies. It made their house smell sweet, and Ginny really liked the sight of honeysuckle twining over the lilies anyway.

Suddenly a waltz was playing in the air. With widened eyes, Harry turned back to stare at his wife. "You've been getting good at this." He complimented her. She bowed low and touched the ground in an elaborate sweep.

Half an hour later Harry was bandaging her toes and she cringed as the grass stained her white dress.

"Sorry." He said sheepishly. "I told you it wasn't a good idea to dance with me." He said, amused as a small smile curled at his lips.

"You did." She complained, wincing as he wrapped the bandage a little too tight. He loosened it and she smiled tightly.

"At least now you can proudly say that you've danced with your wife of three years, Potter!" She teased him. He caught her eye and grinned impishly. They burst into laughter.

* * *

 _Accept that you will always be different. Compromise._

"Merlin, Ginny! What the hell's wrong with _red_?!"

"Well, if you's been forced to paint the walls of Hogwarts with red words by an insane Wizard, you'd have an aversion to it too! Besides, there's a good chance this baby will have red hair! I'm not painting the kid's room red!"

"Well then, I refuse to paint it yellow!" He yelled back at her.

"What's wrong with _yellow_?!"

"It's a pansy colour! What if we have a boy?"

"Merlin's soggy arse Harry, it's one of the few widely-accepted gender neutral colours! And it was _your_ brlliant idea to paint the room the Muggle way - if we'd just painted it with a simple _flick of a wand_ , we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

"Ginny, the one thing that says I love you is putting hard work into something you wanna give your kid! He or she can walk into his or her room and go, 'Wow, my parents must really love me for them to paint it the Muggle way when they could've painted it like a wizard!'"

She _accio_ 'd the copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ that Hermione had lent her and threw it at his head. He ducked, and it struck the wall behind him.

"You think _my_ parents didn't love me, you twat?! They painted my room after I was born!"

"Not to be rude, love, but they'd already had to paint five rooms before you!"

"Argh! You foul git! You and your Muggle _this_ and your Muggle _that_ \- have you forgotten you're a wizard, Harry? You were brought up a wizard!"

"I never knew my mum! And I know that she and my dad would've painted my room the Muggle way because that's what she wanted and my dad agreed it was a nice gesture! Do you know how _fun_ it is to paint a room?!"

"Not when you're seven and a half months pregnant!" She yelled back at him, pointing to her protruding stomach. "We can _finally_ have a kid - Hermione came through for us, and you want to lose the happiness that this little kid is gonna give us over how to paint the bugger's _room_?!"

"Well, if you'd just _agree_ to doing it the Muggle way, we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

"Really? This argument began as what _colour_ to paint the room! You think we won't fight about that? Ever since I entered my third trimester you've been so bitchy about everything! What's wrong with you?!"

"What's wrong with _you_?! Fine, yes, you can't paint easily the Muggle way in your condition, but let _me_ do it at least! James Potter would've done it and I want to be as good a dad as he was before I lost him!"

"James Potter is _dead_!" She shouted at him. "And so is Lily!"

She gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as she stared at him in horror. A muscle jumped in his cheek and his ground his teeth.

"Alright." He said in a quiet voice, still bristling. "My parents are dead. But that doesn't give you the right to pretend that they never existed and disregard Muggle traditions entirely. I _was_ brought up in a Muggle household for eleven years before I knew I was a Wizard."

"Sweetheart, you lived under a _staircase_."

He made a dismissive gesture. "Your house was practically falling apart when I first visited it."

She flared up again. "How _dare_ you."

He shrugged. "With ease. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going out." He told her, stalking out to the front room and grabbing his coat from the rack.

"Into Muggle London? Or to the Leaky Cauldron?" She asked him snidely, knowing among all others, he liked the Leaky the best. Throwing her his best dirty look, he strode outside and Ginny waddled to the sofa in their living room, collapsing on the couch.

She spent fifteen minutes thinking good thoughts about throwing frying pans at him the 'Muggle way' before she drifted off to sleep.

 **\- line break -**

Harry was mad.

A hand clapped his back and it's owner came around him to sit on the stool next to him as he nursed his Firewhiskey.

"Why so down, Potter?" Malfoy ordered a Butterbeer and sipped it before turning to him.

"Sod off, Malfoy." He snapped, taking a swig of his drink. Malfoy eyed the Firewhiskey worriedly.

"How many of those have you had?"

"That's his second." Hannah informed him, placing her palms on the counter. "Wouldn't listen to me when I told him to stop."

"I'm gonna take that away from you, mate." He pried the drink from Harry's hands and groped in his pocket for coins. Squinting at them in the dim light, he laid a Galleon and 10 Sickles on the counter for Harry. Hanna scooped it and a drawer shot out. She dropped them in the correct places and returned to attending the other customers.

"Thanks." He muttered. Malfoy sipped his Butterbeer and watched him.

"You gonna tell me what happened?"

"Ginny wants to paint the kid's room yellow the Wizard way." He told him. Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"Does _every_ Muggleborn-Wizardborn couple have this problem? When Hermione and I fought over Phoenix's room, it took us three days before we could stand to be in the same room without screaming at each other. Merlin, I should advertise what we did."

"What _did_ you do? Ginny refuses to paint the room because she's too pregnant, but she won't let me do it either. What's wrong with _me_ painting it?"

He made a sympathetic noise in his throat. "She's probably giving you shit about the gender neutral thing too?"

He scoffed. "How is yellow a gender neutral colour? I'd hate to have a yellow room!"

"What we did is I chose the colour and we painted the room that colour the Muggle way. Hermione begged me change it but I didn't budge." He grinned. "Phoenix's room is a dark green."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Hermione would've hurt you for that."

"She refused to sleep with me until three months after he was born." He grumbled, shivering.

Harry began to laugh. "Didn't you paint his room in her first trimester?"

"Such a dry spell I have never experienced. Especially when it was _voluntarily_."

"So you're saying don't sleep with her if she chooses a colour I don't like?" He chuckled. "Sorry, mate. I won't hold out three weeks. Hermione's got strong willpower."

He shrugged. "Ginny loves you. She won't choose a colour you will have a genuine problem with." He reasoned. Hannah wandered over to them and gave him a pointed look. He scrounged around in his pocket and pulled out 10 Sickles and 3 Knuts, laying them on the table.

"Thanks, Malfoy. Want anything else?"

He shook his head. "Not right now, Longbottom."

She scowled. "Don't call me that."

"What, not official yet?" He teased her. "You've been going out six years!"

She rolled her eyes. "Call me when you want something." She called to him, going to the other end of the counter to pour out Hog's Tea for a middle-aged woman Harry was pretty sure worked at the Ministry.

"Alright, Malfoy." Harry sighed. "I'm going to go home and tell my wife she can paint our kid's room yellow. I will rejoice if we have a girl and I will curse fate if we have a son."

Malfoy laughed. "Good luck, Potter. Tell me how it goes."

He grimaced. "If Gin doesn't hex my balls off."

"Of course, there's also that possibility." He deadpanned.

Shaking his head, he lifted off the stool and waved a goodbye to Hannah before Apparating home. The lights were on as he left it, and he wandered into the living room to find Ginny knocked out on the couch. Grinning, he managed to manoeuvre her into his arms as he carried her into the bedroom and placed her gently on the sheets, covering her with them. Her eyes flew open.

"Hi."

"Hi." He smiled back at her. "You can choose what colour you want to paint the room."

"Really?!" She exclaimed. He nodded.

"On the condition that I get to paint it."

She cocked her head, mulling it over. Harry crossed his fingers behind his back.

"Fine." She agreed reluctantly. "But can I help if I can?"

He kissed her and she wound her arms around his neck. "Yeah." He mumbled into the meagre space between them. "You can do all the walls if you want. But let me do the ceiling."

"Yeah, okay."

He smiled. "Okay."

"Okay."

He was more than happy with the baby's hand-painted, beige bedroom with mauve silhouettes of a Quidditch game. Grinning, he looked up at the Seekers on the ceiling, one of seemed to be dodging one of the Beater's Bludgers, who were also on the ceiling. He'd painted a tiny Snitch in the corner of the where the right wall met the left wall. The Keepers were on the right and left wall, and one team's Chaser seemed to be trying to score a goal, with two Chasers blocking her. A Chaser on the other wall was waving her hands for the Quaffle, and he was being blocked by the other one Chaser left. The last Chaser for the opposing team seemed to be on standby for the Quaffle.

This was a good room. He closed the door and let the paint dry, one hand around Ginny's shoulders.

* * *

 _Be there for each other_.

Harry was going through yet another day of incessant paperwork when Ron came barreling into his office, scattered the teetering files and loose papers from Harry's desk, and grabbed the man's shoulders, shaking him like rat.

"My sister is having your baby, you twat! Why aren't you at the hospital?" He yelled, slapping him across the face. He was left stunned.

"Merlin, mate! What happened?!" He yelled, trying to restore his desk to some semblance of order when Ron grabbed his arm and hauled him outside the office, shoving his coat into his arms. Samuel, a kid who had just passed out of Durmstrang who had working as Harry's secretary for the past two months, rose with his eyebrows high.

"Mr Weasley!" He demanded. "This is not the code of conduct for a man of your status! What is the meaning of this?!"

"My sister's having his baby, you git! There's no code of conduct for someone who's gonna be an uncle!" He barked at the eighteen-year-old.

"Right, of course, Mr Weasley. I suppose you won't be coming in for another day, Mr Potter?"

"I'm taking a leave of one week's time, Samuel." He ordered. "Clean my desk. Any memos cannot interrupt me unless they are Class A, in which you may send them to my home. Tell Missy to take me off any current assignments. I won't be taking my paternity leave, but I refuse to do any fieldwork. I will resume it four months from now."

"Anything else, Mr Potter?"

"Destroy the fanmail. Finish the paperwork that you can regarding the Yaxley case."

Ron jerked. "Yaxley's not done yet?"

Harry grinned. "Susan convicted him two days ago. I just have to finish the paperwork and send it in before they escort him to Azkaban."

"I'm going to marry her one day!" Ron exclaimed. "Now come on! My sister's having - "

" - my baby, I know! Come on!"

Grabbing onto Ron's arm, he Apparated into the lobby of St. Mungo and ran up to the first receptionist he saw, a middle-aged man. The man that he'd just finished talking to was sporting green pimples all over his face and the receptionist had just pointed him in the direction of Spell Damage. Harry banged his palms on the counter unnecessarily to get his attention.

"My wife's having a baby!"

"Ms Weasley was admitted roughly thirty minutes ago by Hermione Granger-Malfoy and Ron Weasley, Mr Potter. She is in...Room 2 in the Pregnancy Ward on the 34th floor. Good luck!" He shouted him as the two men raced to the elevator and threw themselves into it, Ron's fingers jumping against his trousers and Harry twisting his fingers, rubbing his eyes as the elevator dinged at the 12th floor.

Th doors opened again slightly and the two of them dashed out, running full-speed all the way up to Room 23 before realizing where they were and backtracking to Room 2.

Harry burst into the room with Ron right on his heels. Ginny looked up from the table and smiled at Harry, from where she was talking to Hermione.

"Still in form, mate?" Harry asked Ron as he shrugged off his coats, referring to their race. Ron grinned.

"I like the exercise."

He nodded teasingly. "Get the rest of the family. And _no one_ enters the ward once Ginny's dilated seven centimeters. I won't have more than four people in the room, and that includes Hermione and me."

He rolled his eyes. " _Fine._ " He huffed. "I'm going."

"Bye, Ron!" Ginny called from the bed, sweat beading at her hairline. She smiled at Harry as he sat down on the other side of the bed, clasping her hand.

"Hi, Gin." He murmured softly, squeezing her hand. "How's the baby?"

"All - Merlin!"

"What happened?!" He was out of his chair in a shot. "Are you okay?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Calm down, you git. She's in labour. She's having contractions. Calm down."

He looked uncertain. "It's normal?"

Ginny nodded, puffing. "It's normal. And it's going to take a while. All Weasley women have had labours for over twenty hours."

Harry looked like he wanted to fall to the ground and faint. Ginny rolled her eyes and turned to Hermione.

"'Mione, if he collapses, you can't, okay?"

"All right, Gin." She laughed, glancing at Harry. "You better not faint like some prissy." She ordered him.

"Malfoy fainted when Phoenix was born!" He defended himself hotly.

"That's why he's a prissy." She explained.

 **\- line break -**

"The kid's coming! OhmyMerlin it's coming!"

"It's not an 'it', you twat!" Ginny screamed from the bed. "If you make me yell at you when there's a baby coming out of you, I will never have your kids again!"

"Yes, you will!" He answered cheekily, too drunk on the fact that he was about to become a dad to watch what he said. Hermione frowned at him, flushed from having to deal with a Ginny-in-labour for the last twenty-eight hours.

"Harry, maybe you don't want to antagonize the woman in labour?" She warned. "She might cut your balls off after this is over."

He paled. "You wouldn't, sweetheart, would you?"

"There's a baby coming out of me!"

"Right. Shutting up."

Her screams filled the air as she held onto Harry and Hermione's hands, pushing with all her might. They exchanged tense looks as they increased in pitch.

Her head fell back against the pillow. Someone else's cries filled the abrupt silence.

Harry's eyes grew to the size of saucers. Hermione sort of gasped, laughed and choked all at the same time. Turning away, she began to silently cry into Ginny's shoulder.

"I'm a dad." The raw wonder in his eyes was what told Hermione to get out of the room. Getting up, she got out of her stool, and massaged Ginny's hand comfortingly before making herself scarce, falling into Draco out of exhaustion once she left the room.

"Here's your son, Mr Potter." The kindly old woman handed him the baby and his hands shook as he held the tiny creature, whose eyes were still buttoned up. "And may I say, it was an exquisite honour to deliver your child. Please convey my heartfelt congratulations to Ms Weasley when she wakes up."

He nodded, his eyes still round. He looked frantically around for Ginny and his eyes softened when he saw her sleeping. He padded over to his stool and sat on it, cradling the baby. The kid screwed up his eyes, and opened them, blinking once at Harry before opening his mouth and crying.

Ginny shot awake. "Crap! Oh baby, I'm so sorry. Here, Harry, give him to me."

A midwife hurried over and helped her arrange her gown so the boy could suckle on her. His cries softened and Ginny looked up at Harry, whose hand was still shaking.

"Ginny, he's got black hair." He whispered, gazing at the boy and the soft down that covered his head. She nodded.

"He does."

"He's gonna play Quidditch."

She smiled at him. "He will."

"He's gonna get a job."

"Harry, calm down."

"Merlin, he's gonna get a girlfriend in fourteen years!"

Ginny laughed-choked, beginning to cry. "Or a boyfriend."

"Or a boyfriend." He agreed, placing a hand over the baby's head, and an arm around Ginny. "What are we going to name him?"

She shrugged. "I don't want to name him after my family."

He looked at her in surprise. "You don't..? I was thinking we could call this little bugger Gideon."

She shook her head. "I'd sob every time I had to call him someone that died. Let's name him after yours." She told him, tearing up.

His eyes shone greener than they ever had before. "Okay."

"Okay." She agreed, smiling tiredly, the tears still streaking down her face.

"Can we call him James?" He pleaded with his wife. She nodded.

"Okay. James Potter."

"How about James Sirius Potter?" He inserted slyly, grinning. She _looked_ at him.

"Don't push it, Potter." She mock-threatened. "I get to name any girls we have after this if we call him that, okay?"

"Sweetheart," he kissed the top of her head, "you can name all the kids we have after this."

"Okay." She agreed.

"Okay."

"Okay."

* * *

 _Love each other._

* * *

 **A/N: Awww...*wipes away tear***

 **I like to think of the Wizarding men we know being giant wusses when it comes to their wife giving birth. It makes me laugh to think of Draco fainting when Hermione gave birth tho XD**

 **Anyway, read and enjoy and I would love love love _love_ it if you dropped a review :D**

 **Also, would you guys like it if I continued in this same fashion only with other pairings?**

 **Believe in the one love and stay amazing :D**

 **Mimi Out!**


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